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Topic: What kind of bee is this? (Read 1395 times)

We have found 2-3 of these bees - dead outside our hive of Russian bees. We believe that this hive just requeened itself so it can't be bees newly hatched as we are just getting the eggs again - or we couldn't see them before (we have had capped larva throughout but the number kept getting smaller and now we are seeing lots of eggs. We decided to stay out of there for a few weeks now). This was a hive that there was problems with robbing earlier but a robber screen solved that problem and we do not see fighting or dieing bees all over like before. What kind of bee do you think this is?Fannbee

I'm afraid I can't see it well enough to tell. How big is it? What color is it? In one picture it looks kind of black and in the other I would guess it's brown. Maybe you could take a picture next to something of a known size like a dime or a metric ruler. (most of my bee mesurements are in milimeters)

I would have to agree with Finsky. Here in the States they are also called Mason bees, sweet bees, or ground bees. the last because they occaionally build nests in the ground. They are the type of honey bees native to North America prior to the importation and introduction of the italian honey bee.

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They look like intermorph queens to me. The abdomen is more pointed and tapered than a worker but, it has a smaller thorax. It's DEFFINATELY a honeybee. I've seen a few bees like that in my Russian hive. I'm probably going to requeen them with italians soon.